Snap Tap Test
Strafe with A and D to see if your keyboard has Snap Tap or SOCD turned on. The test also times each switch, gap or overlap, in milliseconds.
Strafe with A and D, and the test tells you whether your keyboard picks a winner when both keys are down. You’ll see that setting called Snap Tap, SOCD or last-input priority. It also times every switch, so you can see how you counter-strafe.
What Snap Tap does to a strafe
Hold A, then press D. A plain keyboard reports both keys down, and most shooters read that as standing still until you let go of A. Turn Snap Tap on and the keyboard sends A’s release itself as D goes down. You move right at once. Let go of D while A is still held and the keyboard presses A again for you. Your fingers overlap, but the game never sees it.
How the test spots it
You can’t see a setting from a web page, but you can see its timing. When the keyboard swaps the keys itself, the release and the press arrive together, within a fraction of a millisecond. Your hands are never that exact. On our test board, a pair without Snap Tap showed overlaps of 7 to 44 ms, while the pair with it never once had both keys down. So the test counts swaps within 1 ms and also watches for both keys held together, which a keyboard with SOCD never sends.
Gap or overlap
A counter-strafe is the tap of the opposite key that stops you. Let go of A before pressing D and there’s a gap where no key is down. Press D before letting go of A and there’s an overlap where both are. The test shows which one you do and for how long. SOCD removes the overlap. The keyboard drops A as D goes down, so a switch reads close to 0 ms gap. Run it once with the setting on and once with it off, then compare the two medians.
When the game decides instead
Some games resolve opposite keys on their own, after the keyboard has reported them, and this test can’t see that. A program on your PC that swaps the keys before they reach any app shows up here exactly like keyboard firmware. Suspect a dead switch? The keyboard tester lights each key on its own. If keys drop out only while you hold several, run the Keyboard Ghosting Test.
How to use
- Focus the page. One click anywhere on the page gives it your keys. Keys typed into a text field are skipped.
- Strafe with A and D. Hold A, then press D before you let go of A. Switch back the same way, at least 10 times.
- Read the verdict. SOCD active means the keyboard let go of one key the instant you pressed the other. No SOCD in this run covers only this run. If you never held both keys at once, the setting had nothing to do.
- Check W and S if you want. Do the same with W and S. The test reads each pair on its own.
Why test this
Snap Tap hides in keyboard software, behind a key combo or in firmware, so it's easy to forget whether it's on. In CS2 that matters. On Valve servers, a keyboard that resolves A and D for you gets you kicked from the match. On a server that allows it, you want to know the setting actually took. The keyboard's light and app show what you set. This test reads what the board sends. It also times your counter-strafes, so you can see whether you leave a gap where you stand still or hold both keys at once. Rerun it after a firmware update or a profile switch, and before you queue on Valve servers.
What the results mean
Each switch is the time between letting go of one key of a pair and pressing the other. Gaps show as ms gap. When both keys were down together, you get ms overlap. Your median switch is the big number. Last switch is the one you just made. SOCD active means at least 2 switches on one pair landed within 1 ms, with no time where both keys were down together. No SOCD in this run needs 10 or more switches, none of them that close. Inconclusive means only one switch landed that close, or the same pair also showed both keys held at once, which SOCD never allows. Check the SOCD readout to see which pair, A/D or W/S, tripped it.
FAQ
- How do I know if Snap Tap is on?
- Hold A and press D without lifting A. With Snap Tap or SOCD on, the keyboard sends the release of A on its own, within 1 ms of the D press. After 2 of those on one pair, the test reads SOCD active.
- Is Snap Tap banned?
- In Counter-Strike 2, on Valve official servers, yes. Since August 19, 2024, Valve kicks players it suspects of hardware-assisted counter-strafing from the match. Leagues and third-party servers set their own rules, so check the current rulebook before you play.
- What is SOCD?
- SOCD stands for simultaneous opposing cardinal directions: two opposite keys held at once. Without a rule for it, most games read A plus D as standing still. Snap Tap's rule is that the last key pressed wins.
- Why does the test say No SOCD when Snap Tap is on?
- The keyboard only steps in while both keys are down. If you always let go of A before pressing D, there's nothing for it to resolve. Hold A, press D, and only then let go of A.
- What's a good counter-strafe time?
- We don't grade it. You get your own numbers to compare from run to run. A gap is time you stood still. An overlap is time with both keys down.
- Can it test rapid trigger?
- No. A browser only sees a key going down or up, not how far you pressed it, so actuation and reset points stay out of reach.
How we measure
Each key press and release gets the time it reached the page, from the browser clock. A switch is a release of A or D followed by a press of the other within 200 ms, or a press of the other while the first is held, ended by letting the first go within 200 ms. W and S work the same way. A longer pause or overlap counts as a stop, not a switch.
With last-input priority on, the keyboard releases the held key in the same report as the new press. On our test board the two events arrived within 0.2 ms of each other. The test marks a pair as SOCD after 2 switches within 1 ms.
SOCD never leaves both keys of a pair down. If both keys stay down together for more than 1 ms, that pair can't read SOCD for the rest of the run.
No SOCD in this run needs at least 10 switches. The median switch is rounded to whole milliseconds.
What a browser cannot see
A browser sees digital key events only, not how far a key travels. Actuation depth and rapid trigger can't be measured here.
Our check covered one keyboard with last-input priority, in Chrome and Firefox on Windows. Firefox rounds event times to whole milliseconds, and the 1 ms window still catches the swap. We haven't tried Safari, or SOCD modes other than last-input priority, such as neutral.
A program on your PC that swaps opposite keys looks exactly like keyboard firmware here. The verdict says what the keys did, not what did it.
Plug in a second keyboard and its keys mix with the first, because a key event carries no device name.
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